When Facebook goes beyond socializing and changes lives

How many of you have a Facebook account? And how do you use your Facebook account?

Most of us probably use our Facebook account to stay in touch with family and friends (and find long-lost friends as well). We upload pictures and videos, post status messages that range from the mundane “what I had for breakfast” to rants about lousy customer service, links to interesting articles, and other socializing activities.

But here is a story, a true story, about how Facebook was used by my blogger friend, Jay Jaboneta, to actually change the lives of children from the Layag-Layag community in Barangay Talon-Talon, Zamboanga City, Philippines.

Jay’s story started out as nothing out of the ordinary. He traveled to Mindanao (southern part of the Philippines) last October 2010 to talk about The Role of New Media in Nation-Building in a Mindanao Blogging Summit. Having been involved in the last electoral campaign for now President Noy Aquino, Jay met with some of the Mindanao campaign volunteers during his free time and there first heard about the children of this small community.

The kids WADED to school!

Jay told me that the water part that around 200 kids had to wade in is around 1 kilometer. In low tide, the water comes up to their knees but during high tide, those who cannot afford to pay for a boat ride have to wade in chest-deep water to shore. That’s not the end of it. Once they reach shore, the school is still some 1 kilometer away so those who have no money to ride a tricycle still need to walk the rest of that way to Talon-Talon Elementary School.

I was really shaken when I learned about this. I began thinking how kids in Manila went to school. The more affluent ones rode a car every day. The less fortunate ones took public transport like a bus or jeep. At worse, poorer kids walked several kilometers to school. My own kids who lived near their schools walked every day until they had to move to a farther school for higher education and had to be brought by car. But no one had to wade in chest-deep water just to be able to get an education.

Jay himself was shocked upon learning of the kids’ plight and upon returning to Manila, posted this as a status message on Facebook. Little did he know that that one act would take on a life of its own.

Jay’s good friend who happened to be a marketing guru, Josiah Go, read his status and immediately started an online fundraising campaign. Jay reposted Josiah’s efforts and in less than 7 days, Zamboanga Funds for Little Kids was born.

In a week, the campaign raised Php 70,000 (US$1,618). And in another 5 months, on March 27, 2011, a new yellow boat christened Bagong Pag-asa (or “New Hope) was turned over to the Zamboanga community to give free rides to the children during the week. Jay and friends have now raised enough funds for 2 more boats since there are around 200 kids who need rides.

In recognition of the amazing social impact that a single Facebook status message did, Facebook itself posted the story on the Zamboanga kids last April 22 (Friday) in their Facebook page, Best of Facebook Stories. And in mid-May, Jay will travel to Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters for a live interview.

Facebook has now become a game changer in terms of its ability to bring people together for social causes. I am sure it will continue to be a catalyst for improving the lives of so many people not just in the Philippines but worldwide.

To keep updated on what is happening to the kids in Zamboanga, join the open Facebook group, Zamboanga Funds for Little Kids. Also read Jay’s personal account HERE.

Did the story of the Zamboanga kids touch you the way it did me? Please feel free to leave a comment below.

(photos taken from Jay Jaboneta’s website)